Hospitality

The Hospitality specialism’s role is to make sure all client are welcomed to the centre, access services within the centre, and engaging with and giving initial assessments to new and returning clients.  These assessments are completed in the day centre on a daily basis.

The day centre is open, on weekdays, from 8.00 am until 6.00 pm.  Currently, there are two drop-in sessions available for our clients during this time. The first is from 8.00 am until 11.30 am and is specifically for clients who are sleeping rough in the local area.   As the day centre is in a residential area, the staff will open the outside lobby area from 7.30 am and manage the queue so as to inconvenience local residents as little as possible; if the weather is poor the clients will be invited in at this time so they are dry and warm and wait until 8.00 am, when the services begin. The areas outside the day centre are also checked throughout the day to ensure that there is no litter caused by The Passage services in the immediate vicinity. The Passage has a Good Neighbourhood Policy which has been upheld as a model of good practice acrossWestminsterand was developed with extensive neighbourhood consultation.

As clients access the day centre, details (including their name and date of birth) are taken by staff allowing them to track the services that the client has accessed within the centre, how long the client has been using our services and whether they need an assessment or other service. 

When the centre first opens, the priority for the majority of clients is breakfast, showers, clothing and laundry.  These services are available from 8.00 am.  Appointments for initial assessments or other services are made for 9.00 am onwards allowing clients to eat and take care of their immediate needs.  Assessments are based around a client’s needs.  Most assessments will be based around a need for housing options such as hostels but for some clients the priority need may focus on a health, benefit or employment issue. Each assessment is based on individual circumstances and sometimes reconnecting a person with services in another area may be the best way forward. In these cases, they will often be assisted with the aid of a train or bus ticket and information that we have regarding appropriate services in the area they are returning to.  For those where the best solution is for us to work with them for a more local solution, there will be a full assessment, usually with the Assessment & Advice team, unless there is a more pressing need such as a health issue, in which case this will be conducted by the appropriate staff.   The full assessment goes into greater detail regarding the client’s issues and circumstances and the options available that are appropriate to the client’s needs.

At 12 noon, the second drop-in for clients starts.  This service is available to clients who are insecurely housed or rough sleepers and centres around the lunch service.  Insecurely housed clients can include people who are in hostels, bed and breakfast or sleeping on friends’ sofas. As at the rough sleepers’ session, the names and details are taken of those who have not already been in to the centre that day.  The lunch service runs from 12 until 1.30.  Clients seeking assessments at this time will either be seen that afternoon after the drop-in has finished or given an appointment for the first available space the next day.

Throughout the day, as well as attending to client needs and requests, the team spend their time communicating with other internal teams and outside agencies and organisations, inputting relevant information into the client database, carrying out locality and health and safety checks, as well as provision of safe storage of client valuables such as proof of identification.